Why was it that there is always been some sort of competition against two or more contenders for the sake of winning something?

Was it about winning a position —a prize— or an acknowledgement to further elevate an accomplishment as if it was a checklist to assert dominance against the opposition?

What was it about wanting to win something so badly that there is nothing that could stop someone who wants to claim something as their own regardless of the consequences?

What does it take to make something deemed so important like winning that could provoke two entities to clash against each other?

There are many examples of this ancient phenomena called competition to turn the closest of friends into sworn adversaries for the sake of winning.

Many of these prizes ranged from titles, trophies, money, a better job position, a trip towards a dream vacation, an idol, bragging rights, a love interest, the list could go on.

All is fair for winning wars.
Or was it winning more?

Regardless of the old saying; there is bound to be someone who wants to win at any cost, not caring who will become the next stepping stone to get trampled on in order to triumph.

Marco had made plenty of enemies along the line, one of them were enemies with benefits:
The kind of enemies who would gladly disguise themselves as an ally for the sake of taking from what they want from you.

Hypocrisy is a thin mask many have plastered on their faces, only a few of them have the backbone to take it off.

One of them who actually had the backbone to tell Marco what he really thought about him without preamble was Giorgio Ricci, an ambicious Italian businessman like himself.

Giorgio Ricci came from Milan —not because he came from the most fashionable city in all of Europe— it was because he exuded authority that not even the rich could don with the money they spent. He didn't succeed in creating a name for himself by walking on eggshells and granting lipservice, he got his point across with his actions.

One of those actions was associating himself with the right connections, purveying the necessary amount of information and striking a deal deemed beneficial to both parties and cutting the pleasantries.

“Mr. Montana, Mr. Ricci is here to see you.” His secretary called over the phone and quickly sent the investor to the office on the 5th floor. Marco kept his composure once Giorgio stepped into the office. Marco and Giorgio had known each other for several years, they were friends, partners and business associates.

“You must be very desperate if you've summoned me to bring investors in this dump.” Giorgio spoke nonchalant, almost smirking cynically at this circumstance. “What did you do, money laundering?”

“This isn't funny, Giorgi!” Marco admonished him while the associate simply eyed him as he sat down, crossed one of his legs over the other as if it were a vacation trip to Amalfi or another exotic destination. The only thing missing was a lit cigarette between his fingers to destress instead of hearing the plight of an old business rival who only called him to send contacts and shares in order to get a project afloat.

“You've administrated the company for several years now and you haven't solved something so basic as attracting new investors?” Giorgio guffawed at Marco's current misfortune.

“Investors don't just pop out of nowhere!”

“Of course they don't! That's why I'm here to save this miserable company on the verge of getting bankrupt. You're not the only one trying to quell the economic inflation skyrocketing every damn month. We're all crawling out of a pandemic and despite reaching some semblance of normalcy, there's always a new problem coming at full swing. If you can't adapt to the changes, then you're as good as dead! Haven't you read the tabloids about artificial intelligence overrunning the market?” Giorgio ranted and raved while Marco gave a cautious glance at the advertisements sliding automatically at the search bar on Marco's computer, one of them was the tabloid Giorgio was referring. AI economy: the new e-commerce taking over the stock market.

Marco haven't read the article yet, though it wasn't surprising how businesses are adjusting to the future advances in incorporating artificial intelligence and technology in the mix to increase productivity at renowned corporations at a national scale.

“My son, Gino, invested his allowance on an AI generated application for telemarketing and e-commerce with his college buddy who were developing the app in its experimental phase. I'm both proud and terrified of what they could do with that kind of technology. If creating an artificial human is closer to becoming a reality, I don't want to fathom what they are capable of with that kind of power in their hands.” Giorgio stated while Marco looked back at his associate. “If one measly teenager can use their social media to their advantage, what's to say that they can't influence a whole generation to do the same?”

This gave Marco an idea. The Vice of Greed approached him and made a suggestion, “Giorgio, why don't you bring your son to work here? I could use an intern to take a vacant spot.”

“That depends,” Giorgio replied. “If he accepts, I won't be held accountable for his shortcomings. If he declines the offer, you can give it to Ava if you want. My daughter could use some discipline and this job is a suitable punishment for her, it's about time she dropped the female empowerment propaganda and learned how to work with others in the field. If she wants to be empowered so badly, she needs to start from scratch like everyone else.”

Marco didn't expect Giorgio to be so compliant on such short notice. He'd usually scoff at the sub-par performance of any flaw he found on the subject whether it was the deficient numbers of surveys, shifts, shares, advertising, prices, testing, quality control, the charts. Anything that seemed out of order had to be cut down or replaced.

Marco recognized a slightly somber expression shown on Giorgio's face, his sunken eyes were more prominent since the last time Giorgio visited the company.

“Something wrong with your daughter?” Marco's query was answered with an agitated groan whilst the entrepeneur pinched the bridge of his nose.

“I don't vent about my personal life, Montana. I just toss my problems aside with work and that's not even enough to reduce the stress my own children cause. At least I am able to control the amount of euros that were invested in the stock market, but the one thing I can't control are my kids' decisions.” Giorgio confessed, not as a businessman but as a concerned father of two grown-ups. “Teenagers are more unpredictable than the stats that show up on the screen. You estimate the potential they have and they invert the outcome—for better or for worse.”

Marco himself wasn't a family man since he already knew he wasn't fit to be an ideal father figure regardless of the upbringing he had, he knew deep down that parenting wasn't his niche though it was somewhat insughtful to hear it from the perspective of a successful tycoon like his business rival.

“One thing is to love them unconditionally, but some of the things they do for the sake of their own independence can be overwhelming at times. As a father, you want to steer them in the right direction but they just want to get lost or fall off a ditch. I don't want either of them to wind up dead the next day because I push them to the edge.” Giorgio said this more to himself than to Marco and he was already drained from his medical appointments, business meetings, the alimony and now his own son and daughter.

Gino Ricci, piccolo Giorgino, the bambino of Giorgio's own cuore. Gino was Giorgio's own image and likeness. He inherited his father's looks his, his charisma and his ambitious mentality, though he was a slightly more unhinged version of him. He was culturally aware of environmental issues, sports, enteratinment, technology, music and gaming.

Just like any other young adult his age, he wanted to make a name for himself. He went to college to study e-commerce, and wanted to become a businessman and CEO one day. While he may have been born into wealth thanks to his father's hard work and legacy though he wanted to make something for his own sake. Now that he and his college homie made the app and tested it, it was time to upload it to the app store.

“Si.” Gino grinned from ear to ear.

“Finally.” His college roommate said as he pressed the key and closed the laptop. “Now I can go get lunch.” The guy took the laptop and closed it inside the duffel bag.

Gino scrolled on his phone to check on the news, one of the articles.

AI economy: the new e-commerce taking over the stock market.

The recent technological advancements about the inclusion of utilizing AI software to generate an approximate source of income for corporate business renowned nationwide with the aid of social media platforms to attract a plethora of users has become a booming success among cryptocurrency enthusiasts.

Read more

Famous influencer went missing: Ava Ricci.

Ava Ricci Altamirano, daughter of Italian entrepeneur, Giorgio Ricci, had garnered her own following on social media for promoting beauty products, creating her own make up tutorials and known for hosting parties in Italy. She was last seen at a nightclub when a shooting occured nearby the establishment when a bouncer had been shot by a drug dealer linked to the mafia.

Read more

“In che guai ti sei cacciato stavolta, Ava?” Gino thought to himself as he clicked on the article out of curiosity. He knew how ambitious his sister was and how far she went with her plan to start her own business. Despite that both Ava and Gino were siblings, they had a very competitive streak since they were children.

Ava wanted something, Gino would get what he wanted instead. If Gino wanted something, Ava would get her way. It was a vicious cycle to one-up each other as if it was like the battle of the sexes. Who was better than whom?

Sure each gender had their pros and cons but as they got older, they wanted to achieve something the other couldn't do. Their competive and boisterous banter used to be something as harmless as getting a toy, gaining more friends than the other, participating in extracurricular activities, getting higher grades.

But it wasn't about who was the best anymore, it was about who would get to reach 'til the end of the line that their sibling rivalry turned toxic.

This was Giorgio's gripe that came to fruition. He wanted his children to be successful, cunning, tenacious, unyielding on their path to adulthood but not at the expense of his family getting imploded by social media tabloids.

He brushed his daughter's disappearance as fake news from the enemies he made along the way because of his demanding career, Giorgio would've preferred it to be petty cyberbullying from one of his kids' classmates or a morbid joke from an envious blogger who wanted Ava's evanescence to be true. He didn't care what anyone else thought about his archaic patriarchal lifestyle and his way of disciplining his own children as long as any self-proclaimed professional didn't mess with his children.

He didn't care what the two-faced media had to say as long as his only daughter isn't found dead in a ditch somewhere. And he preferred a million times for his daughter to be incognito in a foreign wasteland doing whatever it is that she wanted to do to get out of her predicament than to find her as a lifeless corpse. Accepting that his daughter had died would be that he —Giorgio Ricci— had failed, not only as an entrepeneur, not only as a man, but as a father.

Failure meant defeat, and defeat meant loss. And he wouldn't accept loss as an option.

Translation:

“What trouble have you gotten yourself into this time, Ava?”